Many conventional aerospace systems use light detecting and ranging (LIDAR) laser transceivers to detect range for various applications including aerial mapping, scanning 3D objects surround an aircraft, etc. Further, LIDAR can use lasers for other aerospace applications including measuring air data parameters such as angle of airflow.
In conventional systems, air data parameters are measured by various probes. For example, angle of airflow is measured by angle of attack vanes, air speed is measured by pitot and/or static ports, and ice detection is measured by ice detector sensors mounted alongside the aircraft. While these probes are placed in optimum locations, there remains a risk of damage to the vanes and errors in the measurement due to external obstacles (such as a bird) hitting the vane protruding from these probes.
Typically, an aircraft has a life of approximately forty years. However, mounting the LIDAR laser transceiver on an existing (older) aircraft often requires fabricating new holes in the aircraft and including additional wiring to connect the aircraft's processing system to the LIDAR laser transceiver.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for improvement of mounting a LIDAR laser transceiver.